Sally Holliday Holliday chats with Rotarian Marilyn Pemberton about her biography of Betsy Rae..

October 18, 2011

"It was a story that had to be told," Sally Holliday told Putnam Rotarians today.

She is the author of a book about her sister, Betsy Fletcher Rea, a victim of infantile paralysis at the age of nine in a day when there was no known treatment for the disease,

Betsy underwent years of painful surgeries and therapy to finish college and raise three daughters as a single parent.

The Rea of Hope Fellowship Home in Charleston is named in her honor.

Holliday recalled the terror of polio in St. Albans in the early 1950s. "Epidemics occurred regularly and quarantines were enforced, " she told her Rotary audience.

"By the time the health officials finally gained the upper hand in the late fifties, the virus had infected over 1.6 million people in the United States.

"In 1955 Dr. Jonas Salk announced the development of a vaccine for polio. Celebrations rang out all over the country and widespread vaccinations began the following year.

"The World Health Organization launched a drive to do it globally, and by 2001 polio was confined to just ten countries.

"Overcoming resistance from parents continued to be a challenge when rumors started that some children had contracted polio from the vaccine. Others heard that the vaccine would cause the children to be sterile.

"Some parents were outraged, asking, 'Why do you keep harassing us?'

"With no way to be sure which children had been vaccinated," said Holliday, "the strategy was to vaccinate any child up to the age of five.

"An army of vaccinators began what they hoped would be the final push."

With its End Polio Now campaign, Rotary is raising $200 million to match $355 million in challenge grants received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The resulting $555 million will directly support immunization campaigns in developing countries, where polio continues to infect and paralyze children.

The local club is once again sponsoring a pancake breakfast at Applebee's in Teays Valley to raise funds for the campaign to wipe out polio. Everyone is invited to attend on Saturday, October 29th, from 8:00 to 10:00.

Author Sally Holliday is a founding member of Saint Timothy's-in-the-Valley Episcopal Church (1963). She has served 37 years as founder and president of the Putnam County Board of Parks and Recreation. She was serving with the School Building Authority when state grants were authorized for renovations and additions at Hurricane High and Hurricane Middle Schools. The author is married to retired Circuit Judge Jim Holliday. Among their five children are Elizabeth Rogan, DVM, and Marshall head football coach "Doc" Holliday.